


Sealed Off

by YpsiFang



Category: The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe
Genre: Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 03:38:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9529973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YpsiFang/pseuds/YpsiFang
Summary: When Prince Prospero ordered that no one be let in or out of his abbey, many were left outside the walls. This story details the experience of a sealed-out peasant. Credit to Edgar Allan Poe for writing the original story and doctorlit for giving me the idea behind this.





	

John watched as the lords and ladies crowded into the abbey, despair bubbling up inside of him and threatening to swallow up all hope. Here the only people who could help him and his fellow peasants by at least providing a bit of food were shutting themselves in, not wanting to be reminded of the horrors outside. The Red Death would soon overtake everyone outside, and there was nothing John or anyone else could do about it. John slumped against a wall in defeat. What was he to do?

  


Two months later, bringing naught but pestilence and dying. John watched in horror as yet more died at the hands of the Red Death. One victim was lying on the ground, covered in the scarlet stains which so terrified Prince Prospero as to cause him to seal himself inside his abbey.

  


Three months later, and John was starving, barely alive- there were almost none left to tend to the fields. He was in constant agony, and almost wished the Red Death would come to his home to deliver him from it. He had heard no news from the nearby abbey, and indeed, he had no reason to think he ever would. It had fallen to the back of his mind, after an urgent desire for food or comfort.

  


One week later, a man dressed in a cloak and masque arrived in John's village. John feebly asked him what his business was there. The man replied, "To release you." John joined so many others, guided to the afterlife by the Red Death. The masqued man left for the abbey, though none were left to witness what would occur soon later.


End file.
